The Witching Hour
by Guardian of Hope
Summary: With Mirinoi fallen, the Rangers scramble to catch up. At the Darkest Moment Comes The Light 02


They gathered at the Haven, most of them Rangers, half of them retired. Tommy scanned the room, watching as Alia settled their guest in her chair, as Billy showed TJ and Carlos a series of pictures of his children, as Karone paced the edges of the room, looking distressed and angry. Then Blake stepped into the room, followed by the teenagers who made up Megaforce. Tommy took a moment to study these newest Rangers.

The Red was Troy, with a cautious smile and restless eyes. Shane had said the boy carried the scars of Beacon Hills, and Tommy didn't think Shane was referring to the circular scar on Troy's left wrist, as if he'd fought against some heavy restraint.

Next was Black, Jake, and Blue, Noah. Noah was hovering over Jake, and after a moment, Tommy remembered that Jake had recently spent several weeks in an SPD facility. From the way Noah touched his arm and kept looking at him, there was more than one person suffering trauma from that.

Finally, Pink and Yellow came in, openly holding hands. Pink was Emma, and according to Shane the only thing soft about her was her singing voice. Yellow would be Gia, and Shane hadn't said much about her besides the fact that Taylor and Ronnie would find her to be a kindred spirit.

Hunter and Rocky followed the teens in and Rocky paused to pull the door closed before taking his seat.

The Megaforce Rangers crowded around a corner of the central table, and Tommy found himself the subject of a defiant stare by Troy when their eyes met. Emma kept glancing at Karone, but most of her attention was on Gia. Same with Blue, he was torn between watching Billy and leaning into Jake. Jake finally settled things by pulling Noah's chair into his and leaning into his friend, ducking his shoulders awkwardly until Noah's arm was resting on them.

Seeing that everyone was finally settled, Tommy cleared his throat. "Two days ago, Mirinoi broadcast a distress message saying the planet had been attacked and the Galaxy Rangers captured." Tommy indicated their guest, "This is Irina of KO-35, life partner of Damon Henderson. The Galaxy Rangers sent her to explain what happened to them."

"If they were captured," Jake said, proving his almost lazy sprawl was anything but lazy.

"They sent me when they realized they would be captured," Irina said, standing up. Tommy took his seat, watching the room while Irina spoke. "For months, Mirinoi has been subjected to raids. Not many, and easily repelled, but enough, in retrospect, to prove that our defenses were being tested."

"They wanted to see what your response was," Troy said, "how fast, how strong. Right?"

"Right," Irina said. "We hadn't fully noticed the pattern before the attack actually happened. The Witch appeared in the Ranger compound. She's a member of the _AperZedd Merika,_ but that's all I can tell you, well that and she has a very strong power."

Irina took a small pouch from her pocket and withdrew a figurine. She handed it to Billy, "This is Mike, the Magna Defender. The Witch did that to him. She thought he was the Red Galaxy Ranger and attacked him, when he became the Magna Defender, she attacked the compound in anger, furious that she'd been deceived."

"How was she deceived?" Emma asked.

"Are you at all familiar with the history of the Galaxy Rangers?" Hunter asked.

"No," Troy said, "we've been… busy."

"Mike's little brother Leo is the Red Galaxy Ranger," Hunter said, "the Galaxy Rangers came into their powers by retrieving the Quasar Sabers from their containment unit. It's very Sword in the Stone and all, but in this case, they were fighting one of generals they would face off with over the course of the war, Furio, and Mike grabbed the Red Saber to defend himself. Mike would later fall into a crevice that Furio tore in the surface of Mirinoi in his anger at the loss of the Quasar Sabers. He gave the saber to Leo, who unlocked the Red Power and through that, unlocked the other Rangers' powers as well. Mike was saved by the spirit of the previous Magna Defender, granted his power and came back."

Troy frowned at Hunter for a moment, then nodded and said, "I see."

"So this Leo is Red, but what about Mike?" Jake asked, holding up the figurine, "This doesn't really look like a Ranger suit."

"The Defender isn't a Ranger," Karone said, "Although the power comes from the same source, the channel is different." She turned to Irina, "What happened to the Rangers, though?"

"The Witch is very powerful," Irina said, "and she tosses that spell around like a telekinesis ball. Her forces are powerful as well. The Galaxy Rangers had one of two choices, they could risk the Lights of Orion and go after her head on, or they could do what they could to weaken her in hopes that your Rangers could stand against her."

"How could they weaken her?" Blake said.

"The Sabers," Karone said, "they can morph without them, but having the Quasars with them when they do, and they have a powerful weapon and can activate the Lights of Orion. They put them back in the stone, didn't they?" She asked Irina.

"They did," Irina said. "They decided to send someone to KO-35 with the warning, that is me, but we needed time to get the emergency pod prepped for launch. The Mirinoians went out and put out every trap they know, with some of the Defense forces working with them. They marked out safe paths for the Rangers to follow. The Witch sent her forces to catch the Rangers, but between the Rangers' skills, and the traps, the Rangers were able to return the sabers. Leo called it a, a relay race. The Witch was able to capture all of them. Leo had reached the stone and returned the saber before I took off, but they said the Witch was there before my communications array was out of range of the radios."

"I'm sorry that happened," Troy said, quietly. "Are we sure the Witch is headed our way, though?"

"I found Irina's pod in space," Karone said, "we sent a warning on to KO-35 and came here to get the word out as fast as we could. This morning, I received this." She placed an oval shaped device on the table and tapped it.

A series of explosions echoed from the device, " _Karone, the Witch is here! She's here and she's after me. Analyn tried to use the morpher, but the Witch was too fast. Jos is taking Zordon and the kids to Eltare. By the time you get this, I'll be captured, but it's okay. I know you'll keep Zhane and Andros in one piece until this is over. Don't worry about me I'll be fine. Take care of yourself."_

"That's Ashley," TJ said, "Jos contacted us, and they're safe on Eltare. Not even this Witch will try Eltare, not now that they're alert."

"But if the Witch can't get Jos, he'll go for TJ," Carlos said.

"So what do this do?" Jake asked, pointing at the figurine in front of Irina.

"We're not sure yet," Karone said, "that's why part of why we've called this meeting."

/././.\\.\\.\

"No," Gia slammed her hand on the table, "You can't expect us to just…"

"We have to," Troy said shortly. "We have the Warstar to worry about. Even if it's likely that the Witch will ally with them, they haven't vanished because we've been busy."

"Speaking of which," Tommy began.

Troy pointed at him, "Unless you're offering to apologize to Justin about what you've put him through over Zhane, I'm not listening. Regardless of whether Zhane was right or wrong, forcing Justin into the middle of that was wrong for _Justin._ Especially given Justin's history."

"How do you…" Tommy said.

"A mutual friend warned me," Troy said, "long before I ever got a morpher." He jerked his head to his teammates, "They don't know. Because telling them how I met Justin when he saved me from the mind controlled murder-lizard is one thing, but the other thing is personal." He pointed at Hunter, "We'll keep the Warstar busy, but I wouldn't expect Justin to help you guys. Apparently there's some new and interesting tech he's discovered at the facility that's attracted his attention."

"That won't keep him from being a target," Hunter said.

"Everyone is a target," a poisonously sweet voice announced. A globe of sickly green light shot through the room towards Rocky. His wife, Alia, shoved him over, taking the hit herself and vanishing.

Tommy lunged towards the door, where a purple skinned alien with teal tentacles stood. Billy came up over the table after Tommy, but Troy grabbed Gia before she could join them. "Get Rocky and Irina. Emma, get those figurines," he ordered the girls as he pulled Noah away from some straight lightning. He grabbed Jake, "Make us an exit."

Jake nodded and morphed, throwing himself and his axe against one of the walls.

Irina appeared from under the table, figurines in hand, followed by Gia and Emma dragging an unresponsive Rocky. "He's in shock," Emma said as they cleared the table.

"We're through," Jake called.

Troy paused to scan the room, noting how the others were going for the woman. Even as he watched, more of the green balls slammed into Hunter and Blake. Then Troy turned and dove through Jake's hole, somersaulting onto the ground on the other side.

Rocky had woken up enough to start protesting, "We can't leave them," he said.

"We have to," Troy snapped back. "Do you think any of us can fly a ship, even if we could get to one? We can't. We need you, Rocky."

"But," Rocky began.

"We don't have much time," Noah said, "Karone's holding the Witch, but even she can't do that forever."

"We have to get to Earth," Troy said. "You know how many intelligent people are involved with the Rangers today, we'll get Alia back, and Mike, and even figure out how to help everyone else, but to do that, we have to go."

Emma put Alia's figurine in Rocky's hand, "Don't let her sacrifice be in vain," she said quietly.

Rocky clenched the figurine tightly and after a long moment nodded. "Let's do this then."


End file.
